Mad Men Far Away Places

[babydraco]

I liked that the acid sequence was understated. It's probably far more realistic to portray a simple shift in reality, rather than an explosive circus of a drug trip. He was still in the same room, everything looked mostly the same but the rules of reality were bent. He could watch himself doing things, talk without opening his mouth, and hear music that wasn't there. Good job using "Pet Sounds" as the background music.

Also...FUNNY!

Everyone called it on Ginsberg being a Holocaust baby. There are debates about why Peggy would find that strange and say "I didn't think that happened" (or whatever) and discussions over just how much people knew about it in 1966. And while I'd say they knew more than we think now, they just didn't talk about it- remember, NYC has one of the largest populations of Jews in the world, which at that time would've been one of the largest populations of refugees. I don't think that was meant literally, more in the sense that people always go through this "I can't believe that really happened" thought process with the Holocaust, because, OMG, that really happened. It wasn't a movie or a collective drug trip or something that happened in the mythology of an ancient civilization, it was real and it was recent and OMG.

I feel like Don doesn't see Gene as his real son. He bought gifts for Sally and Bobby, but not for Gene and his excuse was that "Sally will make sure they share". Maybe it's because he was born during the breakup of the marriage to Betty, maybe Don suspects Gene isn't his?

Don is essentially two people, and no one ever knows both of them, except Megan...and this episode shows us why knowing both of them can turn disastrous.

I feel awful saying this, but Megan acted horrible the whole time. She was miffed that he didn't realize she might want to stay at the office when he felt like taking a trip, sure, and she didn't like the orange sherbet, she picked a fight, she wouldn't let him back in the apartment, and she refused to answer the phone or tell him where she was. Basically, she tries to manipulate him by childishly rejecting things he tries to give her, or punish him by withholding things and then...doesn't expect some sort of fight to result? She often treats him vastly unfairly when he makes the slightest mistake instead of negotiating and discussing it like an adult. That business with who was going to call Trudy to cancel their visit last week, her behavior there worked because she responded clearly and assertively like an adult.

But the way she acted after the birthday party was just tiresome and ineffective. Because rather than relate to him, she tries to control him with emotional and sexual manipulation, which just leaves him feeling trapped and out of control. When Don feels trapped, he makes bad choices.

I'm not sure if Megan is just young and inexperienced, more free thinking and independent than Betty was but without a single clue how to actually be in a free and independent marriage...or if she's baiting him on purpose because she wants to see him lose it for whatever reason. If you want your role defined, define it for yourself, don't wait for the other person to do it. Anything else is passive agressive, and I'd have to wonder about your motivations. Megan often takes advantage of being Mrs. Draper in the workplace.

Don largely has been respecting her opinions and desires, far more so than he ever respected Betty's. But he's from another generation and he's confused by when to treat her like a coworker and when to treat her like a wife. He may have even brought her up to Hojo's to get her actual opinion on it, you can tell he's trying to get her to join in his business related observations, but he also wants to share something he enjoys. Megan was confused over whether she was supposed to act like a wife or a business associate, so instead she chose Angry Incommuncative Child.

He thought she was dead. WIth good reason, if you think about it. All that talk of random murders (particularly murders of women) and the last time anyone at the hotel saw her, she was going off into the parking lot with a bunch of guys. He thought she was dead? *We* all thought she was dead. I spent that time thinking "okay, so this is where it's going to happen"...

Then she locked him out of their apartment, which indicates she knew he was coming back and didn't care. It isn't that she had no right to lock the door, but unless she was expecting him to come back and try to hurt her, locking it seemed unneccessary and cruel. The sort of thing you'd do if you either wanted to teach someone that they better make you happy or else- or you wanted to encourage them to lose their temper. It's like she can't read him at all, couldn't understand what she was doing.

But she couldn't have anticipated the violence lurking in Don, right? I obviously don't want to blame her for Don's over the top reaction. Men's capacity for unforseen violence seems to be a theme this season.

I don't think anyone saw that outburst of violence coming no matter how much she baits him in the apparent hope that he'll lose it. She's a little girl playing with a bonfire, her attempts to manipulate him are reckless at best. But geez, that was incredibly scary when he chased her around the apartment. It might be one of the more shocking contemporary tv moments, and like a lot of people, I fear that next time it could be worse. Especially considering that reference in his fever dream of threatening to throw Andrea off the balcony.

A lot of people are arguing that this shows Don and Megan have been fighting a lot more than they let on.

Something bad is going to happen to a major female character this season. I can feel it like a person with a bad leg can sense rain coming. It has a general Hitchcockian horror movie feel, including references to things like Rosemary's Baby. The sherbet scene is similar to the chocolate mousse scene in the movie.